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Cornal's memory could give the Bulls their 'why' for playoff form

football19 May 2025 07:05
By:Brenden Nel
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Vodacom Bulls © Gallo Images

The Vodacom Bulls may have put an emotional week behind them and are in a good place as they go into their week off, but the memories of their fallen teammate Cornal Hendricks could well become the centre point for their playoff hopes over the next few weeks.

Coach Jake White rightly said he wouldn’t play on the emotion ahead of the Dragons game, and while the performance was far from perfect, the Bulls put on 55 points to cement their second spot on the log and give themselves a home quarterfinal and possible home semifinal if they make it that far.

But it would be understandable that Hendricks’ memory, which has played out so vividly in emotion over the past few days, could become the centrepiece of their Vodacom United Rugby Championship campaign.

There was an immediate need to honour their fallen friend on the weekend but in the larger scope of things, they would need a lot more to go all the way and win the title.

White believes Hendricks may be the “why” the team are looking for.

The Bulls mentor has been in the game long enough to know that pure talent often isn’t enough to get to a title, and sometimes there needs to be an underlying hunger, a need to fulfill to get past some of the tougher opposition.

The Bulls have fallen short in their last two finals - losing to the Stormers in Cape Town in year one of URC and last year at home to Glasgow Warriors.

“It was a bit tough, I must say, you forget how young these guys are. I’m an older guy and you still feel like, ‘gee, this is not how it should be,'” White said after the game.

“I just said to them now that it was a different week, something that we’ve never experienced. I even finished with 14 men as well. I took Ruan Nortje off, just because I wanted to see whether we could defend and play without a lineout caller.

“I deliberately did that because I want to see whether or not they can handle it if I put them into situations where we can’t always control those things. The message is: we’ve done all the hard yards now to get into the playoffs. We needed a why, and this is the why.”

White referred to Munster’s fallen coach Anthony Foley, whose death galvanised the team in 2016 as something that brought their team inspiration.

“Sporting teams, sometimes they need this and you look at what happened to Munster when they lost their coach. They just kicked into gear and they ended up winning,” he added.

“Winston Churchill once said: ‘In adversity comes opportunity.’ I think it was a learning curve for these guys as well, which is part of coaching as well. It’s not just about the rugby, it’s sharing that with them.

“And it was emotional. They got a week off and now we can come back and really use that emotional energy that sporting teams sometimes need in the sports that we play.”

White was also crowing about the fact the Bulls finished second despite not having a host of stars - either injured or like Kurt-Lee Arendse away in Japan. But he added that it all meant nothing if the Bulls didn’t kick on and use the momentum in the playoffs.

“That’s the highest number of points and most wins that we have had in a URC season. There are a lot of positives for us. Tries are up there, defensively we’re much better than we have been for the last four years. So job done,” said White.

“First thing I have always said is we need to get into the playoffs and we’ve done that. We’ve finished second which means we are in a very fortunate position. But I’ve said it before, you get judged on the next three games.

“That’s when you want to be at your best. The last three games of every competition are the ones you want to win. Quarterfinal, semifinal and final. World Cups, Junior World Cups, URC, Super Rugby, that’s when you need to bring out your best.”

The Bulls will have the week off before starting their preparation for their match against Edinburgh on 31 May.

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